


Time for Some Thrilling Heroics

by that_one_kid



Category: Firefly
Genre: Cap'n Tightpants, College AU, Everything is mostly ok, Gen, I read Joss Whedon's scripts and I can't stop talking like this, Jayne gets hurt a lot, Multi, No one can make folks mad like Mal, Please Send Help, River Needs A Hug, Simon's a good brother, The only adult, Trigger warnings for assault and mentions of suicide, Zoe is an adult
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2016-10-17
Packaged: 2018-08-18 05:18:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8150407
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/that_one_kid/pseuds/that_one_kid
Summary: Firefly college AU. Malcolm Reynolds is a college student, and the leader of one of the oddest cliques on campus. Follow the adventures of Mal, Zoe, Jayne, and Kaylee, as well as the other characters from the beloved show.





	1. Out of Gas? (Ride a Bike)

Malcolm Reynolds was having a terrible day.

He sighed as he stepped out of the dim lighting of the engineering center and into the all-too-bright fall sunlight. Integrals swam in front of his eyes and he rubbed them away, frustrated. “Oh, yeah, so looking forwards to this test,” he muttered, slowing his brisk walk across the sidewalk. The squeal of brakes brought his head around sharply, and he swore as he saw the bike hurtling towards him. The rider shouted something inaudible and yanked hard on the handlebars, swerving around Mal and into a bush. The rider crashed to the ground, skidding across the dirt and onto another sidewalk.

“Shit. Shitshitshit…” Mal muttered as he jogged over. The guy was struggling to his feet, tipping his bike off of him and back onto the bush.

“You okay?” a girl in overalls asked, running up and brushing leaves off of the guy’s leather jacket.

“Fine,” he growled, unconvincingly, given that he was holding one of his arms against his stomach.

“What’s your name?” she said, casually pulling a stick out of his hair. He glared back.

“Jayne.” he said curtly.

“I’m Kaylee, nice to meet you!” she chirped. “I’m gonna check on your bike, ok?” And with no further ado she hauled the bike out of the bushes and set to work putting the chain back on.

"Hey.” Mal said, panting. He put his hand on Jayne’s shoulder. “Sorry about-” Jayne spun on him.

“You moron! Why don’t you watch where you’re goin’ before you kill someone!” he snarled, knocking Mal’s hand away with his uninjured arm.

“I said I was sorry, okay?” Mal said, his voice rising. “Back off.” Kaylee lifted her head from the bike gears she was straightening with a swiss army knife.

“Y’all aren’t fighting, are you?” she said. “It looked like an accident to me.”

“Nope. We aren’t fighting.” Mal said. Jayne leaned towards him, but he didn’t move at all, just lifted an eyebrow. “Just good, honest folk having a disagreement.”

“Sure.” Jayne said, after a second. “How’s the bike, Kaylee?”

“All fixed up.” she chirped. “But hang on.” she reached into her overall pocket, pulling out a BandAid. “You have a cut on your face.”

“Thanks.” he said, taking his bike with one arm and walking it away.

“Hang on- uh, no problem!” Kaylee called after him. There was an awkward silence for a second.

“So, headed into class?” Mal asked Kaylee.

“Yep! Physics of Engineering.”

“Hey, we’re in the same class.” Mal said, smiling. “Let’s go before we’re late, right?”

~ ~ ~

Jayne was at his desk when Simon got back to the dorm. Simon dumped his heavy bag of books onto the floor and pulled out a textbook on anatomy. Then he glanced over at his roommate, and noticed with mild concern that Jayne was holding his hand at an odd angle, trying unsuccessfully to rest it on the desk. Simon shrugged, and turned back to his studying, but he couldn’t ignore Jayne’s sharp gasp of pain.

“Hey, um, Jayne?” he asked, softly. “Can I see your hand?”

“What?” Jayne said, his voice sharp. “Why?”

“I’m a doctor. Sort of. I want to see if I can help.” Simon said, and immediately regretted it. It wasn’t like he could treat it if it was a broken bone, or even a sprained wrist. He waited, sort of hoping Jayne would turn him down.

“Fine.” Jayne said, finally. Simon rolled his chair over, gently taking Jayne’s arm off of the desk and slowly starting to extend it. He noted the swelling of his fingers and carefully felt for any fractures along his forearm, hoping desperately that he wasn’t doing anything that could make the arm worse.

“Can you curl your fingers for me?” he asked. Jayne gritted his teeth and curled two of them slightly, then stopped.

“Not any more than that,” he hissed through clenched teeth, and Simon noted with alarm that he’d gone pale.

“Okay, okay, stop.” he said. “I think you broke a couple of fingers. You should to go to a hospital, or at least the on-campus doctor’s office.”

“I can’t afford that.” Jayne said with a scoff. “It's just fingers. I'll tape it up, and it’ll heal.”

  
“No, you- what? No.” Simon stuttered, trying to make sense of the last sentence. “Jayne, you can’t use that hand at all. You need to go to a doctor.”

“I did. I came to you.” he said.

“While I’m flattered, I think you missed the part about me not actually being a real doctor yet.” Simon said, and then looked at Jayne’s resolute face. “God, fine, I’ll take you there myself.”

“You’re gonna make me go?” Jayne scoffed, standing. He stood a head taller than Simon, and was built more like a wrestler than a premed student. Simon was not intimidated.

“I’m gonna go with you, or I’m going to call an ambulance to come pick you up. Which, by the way, would be unecessary and rather more expensive.” He held Jayne’s glare for a long moment.

“Fine.”

~ ~ ~

 “I hope he’s not actually hurt,” Mal whispered to Kaylee, studiously ignoring the powerpoint on basic circuits. “Did you see him fall? How did he land?”

“He kinda landed on an arm,” she whispered back. “By the way, are you Captain Malcolm Reynolds?”

“Uh… yeah. Have you been talking to Zoe? Because I’m not actually a captain of anything…”

“Yeah, she’s my roommate!” Kayle whispered excitedly .”I-”

“Ms. Frye?” the professor asked sharply. “Since you’re clearly paying such close attention to this lecture, would you care to explain why this circuit will not activate this LED?” Kaylee glanced up for a second, analyzing the screen.

“ You’re going to get a short circuit between resistor 4 and 6 where the wires are crossing since ya said the wires aren’t insulated.”

“...Correct,” the professor said, continuing. “And clearly that shows the importance of-”

“I think we live on the same floor as you, actually.” Kaylee whispered. “Top floor of Rhodes Worldwide Alliance Dorm?”

“Oh, yeah.” Mal said quietly. “You heading back after class?”

“Yeah, wanna walk together?”

“Sure.”

“And that concludes today’s lecture.” the teacher said. “Make sure to have your circuit constructed by next class.”

Mal gathered up his things and headed out, pausing to let Kaylee catch up. “So, whereabouts is your room? I know they got the guy’s rooms and girl’s rooms all mixed around, but I haven’t had the chance to ask Zoe where you gals are.” They headed out and across from the classrooms to the Rhodes Worldwide Alliance Dorm.

“We’re in room 625, in the back right corner from the elevator.” Kaylee said. “Where’re you?”

“Room 615. I think it’s at the end of that same hall.” Mal said. Then, he cursed softly as they walked through the doors. Waiting by the elevators was Jayne, wearing a t-shirt and a cast from his wrist that enclosed three fingers. He was standing next to a skinny, pale guy who was holding Jayne’s coat.

“C’mon, you can go apologize right now!” Kaylee said, cheerfully. “No point in feeling bad and not sayin’ anything.” She dragged him over, despite his protests, and the two by the elevator turned around at the commotion.

“Uh, I’m sorry I got in your way.” Mal said to Jayne, scuffing his shoe on the ground. “I might’ve been a mite careless.” Jayne scoffed.

  
“It’s fine.” he said. “I heal fast anyhow.” His nonchalance suggested that a few broken fingers were a mere inconvenience. “This is **Doctor** Simon. He’s my roommate, and he dragged me to get this damn unnecessary thing.” He held up the cast. Simon turned red.

“So, you’re a doctor?” Kaylee asked, and Mal noted with amusement that she’d switched her tone, and was brushing her hair back behind one ear.

“Well, not technically, I’m, uh, I’m still just a pre-med student.”

“Cap’n?” A voice asked from behind them, and they turned to see a tall teenage girl with her arms crossed.

“Ah, Zoe, meet Jayne and Simon.” Kaylee said. “And you know Mal.” There was a pause as she waited for Zoe to respond.

“Pleasure.” she said at last. “So are we getting on the damn elevator, or what?”


	2. War Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How did the name browncoats get started? How did Mal trick Saffron (Our Mrs. Reynolds)? Who bothers to show up to a fight if you can lock yourself in your dorm room?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this fic is being updated really irregularly and I'm sorry but in my defense: College is hard.

_Mal_

Everything was going according to plan. “What do you mean, you don’t want to go?” Mal asked, failing to keep the whine out of his voice. “You said-”

“I know what I said, sweetheart,” Saffron said with a smirk. “I changed my mind.” Mal sighed and shook his head. Internally, though, he was smirking. It'd taken him a week to set up this trap, in order to catch the girl who’d roofied some boy on his floor.

“I should have known,” he said, resigned. “Fine. I really just want to talk to you about how you treated a boy named Tracey this last week.” He’d had to meet her in person. No one knew her name, or where she lived.

“Oh, so you came rushing out to punish me? Avenge his lost honor?” she asked, sardonically. “And to do so, of course, you bought tickets to a football game.” She shifted impatiently, glancing over her shoulder.

“Technically, he bought the tickets. I just thought I’d put ‘em to better use than entertaining your slutty self. Figured that since you’d gone to such lengths, drugging him and all-” Mal said, his voice cold.

 “Well, if we’re speaking technically, you’d know I wasn’t a slut. I didn’t take anything for my troubles.” Saffron returned her wandering attention to him. “I don’t want to go to a football game.”

 “Well, I guess I’ll just return these tickets to him, then,” he said. “And introduce you to this nice gentleman.” A police officer stepped up behind her.

 “Ma’am, you are being taken into custody for sexual assault and possession of illegal drugs. You have the right-”

 Mal gave her a mock salute as he walked away, pretended to dust off his hands, and put the tickets back into his pocket. Whistling, he strolled back towards the Rhodes Worldwide Alliance Dorm, which was such a mouthful he’d gotten into the habit of just calling it “The Alliance.”

 "Guess that takes care of that problem.” he said, smirking.

 “Cap’n?” someone asked him, and he turned, too quickly.

“Ah, hey Kaylee, I was just, uh, I was going to-” he stuttered, struggling to keep her from realizing- 

“Were you talkin’ to yourself just then?” Kaylee asked, curiously. “About some kinda plotting?”

“What?” Mal protested, unconvincingly. “I don’t do that…out loud…usually…” Kaylee rolled her eyes and hugged him.

“I think it’s cute, you looking after all the others on the floor.”

“Well, Tracey was such a mess when he got dragged back to his room after that whole fiasco with Saffron. I figured someone outta do right by him.”

“You’re a nice man, Cap’n.”

“No, I’m not. I’m petty and cruel,” he said, with a half-hearted attempt at a stern face. Kaylee cracked up.

“Well, I’m convinced. Heading back to the dorm?” she said, still smiling.

“Sure.” he said, and they started to walk back.

“What’d you do to her, anyway?” Kaylee asked.

“Oh, sold her out to the cops. Told 'me she was using roofies on folks.” Mal said. “And then I asked her to go to the game with me, so she’d show up to mock me. Didn't know her name or nothin’. The cops pegged her right when she showed up.”

“That’s… that’s actually a good plan.” Kaylee said, musing. “Did Zoe come up with it?”

“Ouch!” Mal exclaimed, stopping outside the dorm doorways to look at her. “No trust in your Captain. I’m hurt, I really am.” He opened the door for her, and they headed to the elevator.  
“Did she?” Kaylee prodded.

“Yes. Obviously.” Mal grumbled. “Hit the damn up button, unless you want to mock me while standing here forever.” The door to “The Alliance” slammed open and Jayne burst into the room. He made it from the front door to the door of the stairwell before the person at the front desk had time to look up, and the stairwell door slammed shut behind him.

“Wow. What’s got him so rattled?” Mal asked.

“Ain't certain it's anything,” Kaylee said, cheerfully. “He likes to rush. Bet he’ll be in his bunk before the elevator gets down to this floor. So, what're you gonna do with the football tickets?”

“They ain't mine. I'll return them.”

~ ~ ~

“You did _what_ with the tickets?” Mal asked, looking panicked.

“I flushed em. I told you.” Tracey said, looking slightly less proud than he had a second before.

“Tracey- you can’t- the plumbing-” Mal was stammering slightly now, angry as he was.

“What? It ain’t mine to fix.”

“No, you moron,” Mal said, jerking his hand back at the bathroom door. “We live on the gorram top floor! Think about it!” Tracey turned pale. 

“Oh.”

And the pipes behind them, making odd gurgling noises and occasional thuds, suddenly burst. It wasn’t as dramatic as Mal expected. There was no spray of water, no shattering of glass. Just a dull snap and the sound of a lot of unsavory liquid draining very quickly into the floor below, where he expected it would spread until it found another route down.

Mal stood very still for a moment. Then he and Tracey turned and ran, sprinting back towards their end of the hall. Mal started pounding on Zoe’s door, and Tracey stood behind him, looking desperate. Kaylee opened the door, yawning.

“What’s up, cap’n?” she muttered, sleepily.

“Where’s Zoe at, Kaylee?” Mal said, shifting between his feet.

“I dunno. What’s wrong?”

“I think we’re gonna have a bunch of real angry people up here real soon. You best stay in your room, okay, mei-mei?” Jayne’s door creaked partway open behind him, and Simon’s face appeared in the crack. 

“What’s going on?” he asked. There was the sound of feet pounding up the stairs and Mal spun to face the doors as they burst open. Zoe slammed through them without slowing down and skidded to a halt next to the rest of the group.

“Cap’n?” she asked. “Wanna tell me why the rest of the dorm is massing for a gorram attack on the upper floor? Which, might I add, IS OUR FLOOR?”

 “This may have gotten a little out of hand,” he said. “There may have been some mistakes made by persons on this floor-”

“Meaning you,” Jayne growled, reaching over Simon’s shoulder to pull their door open all the way, allowing him to see out. 

“Meaning him, actually,” Mal said, jerking a thumb at Tracey. “And we may have accidentally, uh, well-”

“Sir. Spit it out.” Zoe said, her voice sharp.

“We may have flooded every floor below us,” he said, in a rush. “And now they want revenge.”

“I vote we wait ‘em out,” Zoe said after a long and judgemental pause had passed. “Let ‘em forget the whole thing.” There was the much louder sound of many people running up the stairs.

“Or we could just face them now,” Mal said, “And not have to worry about resentment later.”

“Yeah,” Zoe said. “Cuz that always works.”

“So, who’s with me?” Mal asked, excitement in his eyes. He grabbed Tracey by his collar as he started to bolt. “I know you are, son.”

“I’m behind you, sir, as always. God help us all.” Zoe said.

“Me too,” Wash chimed in from the water fountain down the hall. “Sounds like fun.”

“Sorry, I can’t. My sister’s rushing this week.” Simon said hastily, and Jayne smirked. Mal looked at him questioning lay and Jayne shook his head, definitively.

“Uh-uh. I ain’t fightin’ in no war,” he said, and Simon closed their door with a final-sounding click.

“I can help!” Kaylee offered, and there was a long pause.

“I think it’d be safer for everyone if you stayed in our room,” Zoe said, after a second. “You can be the last line of defense for our stuff. Who knows how much damage they could do with some of our prototype drones, right?”

“Good idea,” Kaylee said, gratefully. “I’ll do that.” She closed the door as well, leaving Mal, Zoe, Wash, and Tracey in the hallway.

“Has anyone else noticed there are a lot of empty rooms on this floor?” Mal asked, suddenly. “Like, are there just empty rooms sitting around up here, that could be filled with background noise and odd characters of every sort. Or, say, backup for this fight.”

“I imagine so, sir,” Zoe answered, sighing.

“Well. Someday we’ll figure out who lives here.” Wash said, looking confusedly at the two blank doors at the end of the hall.

“That’ll be an interesting day,” Mal said. “Let’s try to make it there.” And then the stair doors burst open and about twenty sopping wet sophomores burst into the hall, waving lamps and hockey sticks. 

“Get ‘em!” They shouted. “Take down Serenity floor!”

Mal shouted something lost in the din and charged forwards. Wash just screamed something unintelligible and followed, managing only to get clipped across the temples with a particularly heavy toolkit.  Mal plowed into the first few people, while Wash crumpled to the ground with a yelp.

Zoe sighed, and dragged Wash to her room, subtly avoiding eye contact with anyone around her. Mal and Tracey were merrily brawling away with the others in the hall, and she quickly keyed open her room, handed the now-complaining Wash to Kaylee, and closed the door. With a deep breath, she plunged into the fray.

~ ~ ~

“Is Jayne even awake?” Mal asked through a bloody nose, seconds before Jayne threw open his door. He tossed a spinning chair out into the crowd, bowling over several of the smaller attackers and Tracey. He snorted at the resulting chaos and slammed his door again, muttering something about calculus homework.

~ ~ ~

Kaylee put ice on Wash’s head, but by the time he’d come fully out of it the fighting was over.

~ ~ ~

Simon reemerged from his room when the brawl was done and fixed up everyone on both sides of the brawl, much to the delight of the RAs who’d showed up and were trying to run damage control on the whole thing. The crew from Serenity floor had definitely got the worst end of the deal.

“Yeah, he’s got on a brown coat, see?” one girl said, just loudly enough for Mal to hear. “It’s so when he releases the fucking sewage water onto our floor, it won’t stain his coat.” 

“Fucking Browncoats,” her friend agreed, and then turned to shout it directly at the group. “You hear me?” she said. “This isn’t the last you’ll hear of us, Browncoats!” There were shouts of agreement, and the group slowly climbed the stairs back down to their floors. 

“Huh,” Mal said, holding an icepack to a split lip. “Is that really the best insult they could come up with?” 

“They were rather rushed for time,” Wash said, stepping out of Kaylee’s room with a knot on his head and an ice bag in his hand. “Whereas I’ve had plenty of time to think up catchy insults for you.” Jayne pushed past Simon to lean on the wall outside the dorm and nodded at him to continue. “For instance-”

“That’s quite enough of that,” Mal said, hastily. “It’s getting to be dinnertime. Who’s up for supper? Jayne grunted.

“You paying?” he asked.

“Hell, sure, why not. I’ve already lost one fight today,” he said. “Failure of the Browncoats Dinner it is.”

“Who all’s coming?” Zoe asked.

“The whole floor, apparently,” Wash answered, as there was a general scramble for coats and money within the rooms. “So, you know, just Kaylee, us, the Captain, and Jayne.”

“I just want to remind you that I do, you know, exist,” Simon called from his room, his voice muffled by the thick sweater that he was putting on.

“Yep,” Jayne said, clapping him on the shoulder hard enough to knock him forward. “No one else could possibly wear look like such a sissy in that sweater.”

“Where are we eatin’?” Kaylee asked, beaming at the somewhat bedraggled gang.

 “Who cares?” Mal said, finally, and they set off, sneaking down the back stairwell to minimize opportunities for ambush.

“Yep. This is gonna be a fun four years.”


	3. Ariel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for violence and mentions of suicide. Also don't worry, the part that's skipped over during the switch between narrators will come up later.

_Simon_

The Sorority, so famous that it not only needed no name but had no other name. It was an old, red-brick building “What?” Simon asked, his face twisted in confusion and worry.

“River Tam dropped out. She doesn’t live here anymore.” The sorority girl said again, sighing. “What’s so hard to understand? Are you a freshman? This happens a lot in college, you know.”

“Shut up! Just… shut up, okay. River’s my sister, and I know her. She wouldn’t drop out of school. And even if she did she’d come tell me first.” 

“Sorry. I can’t help you.” the girl said and moved to close the door. Simon blocked it with his foot, glaring at the girl.

“I will find her, whether or not you help me,” he said. Then he switched tones. “Please, she’s my sister. I’m worried about her.”

 “I’m sorry,” she repeated and closed the door. Simon stood still for a minute, staring at the door, and then he turned away towards his dorm. He was wandering in that direction when he ran into Kaylee. Jayne’d introduced them, albeit grudgingly, and to his surprise, not all of Jayne’s friends had turned out to be crazy.

“Simon?” Kaylee said, sounding concerned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” Simon said, too quickly. She just looked at him, concerned. “Okay, I, uh-” his voice cracked. “Can we talk about this somewhere less public?”

“Of course,” Kaylee said, and she took his arm, leading him into a nearby building. The room was quiet, and empty, and she opened the door to a study room he hadn’t noticed. “What’s wrong?”

“I have a sister,” Simon said, with a sigh. “She goes to this school. She’s very, very brilliant, and really gifted in dance. She’s also on the autistic spectrum.” Kaylee was listening intently, her face furrowed in incomprehension. “I know, that’s not actually a problem. The, uh, the problem is that she’s very persuasive.”

“Simon? I don’t really understand-”

“I’m not explaining myself well. She convinced me that it would be… helpful, I guess, for her to rush for the sororities. She wanted to connect to the communities, to find people who could help her understand others better. She got in, of course, but I just had a friend tell me that a hazing went wrong in her sorority. I just went to go find her, and they told me she wasn’t there, that she’d dropped out. She’d never do that. Never!”

“I believe you,” Kaylee said, quietly. “So we need to find her.”

“We need to get her out,” he said, and he squared his shoulders. “We need to break into The Sorority.”

 ~ ~ ~

_River_

She couldn’t think about the before, about the flashes of light and noise, the feel of the WRONGNESS, the clothes rough on her skin (her hair in tangles and knots). She couldn’t think about Simon, bursting through the doors, the sounds of chaos and hurt behind him. Instead, she focused on the now, and the door looming in front of them. Simon’s dorm. Safety.

“Okay, we’ll be safe in here,” Simon said, locking the door to his dorm behind them. He put his hand on his sister’s shoulder, but she flinched away. “Are you okay? What did they do to you?”

“The girl is fine.” River said, “Except there are butterflies in my head.”

“Um, okay, River. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I think you need to talk to a specialist.” Simon said. River climbed into his bed and curled up on his pillow. He sighed. “But you can stay here for now. You seem comfortable. Not just, like, physically. You seem relaxed.”

“Yes. This room is full of quiet strength. I like it.” Simon’s alarm went off on his phone, and he looked down at the notification. He swore, and then sighed.

“What’s that?” River asked, sitting up quickly.

“Nothing. It’s not important. What’s important is making sure you’re safe.”

“Lies,” she said. “Important. It’s a test. They said, only the once, only the now. No retaking. Time only flows one way, you know. You have to go.”

“River, I’m not leaving you!” Simon protested.  “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I just-”

“Locked doors,” she said, pointing at the door. “Windows are too high up, there’s no air to breathe out there. Safe in here.”

“No, I won’t-” he starts, but she interrupts him, clambering back down from the bed to put her hand on his shoulder.

“Please,” she said. “Don’t make me hurt you. It would be my fault. I want you to be able to help people.”

“River.” he said, but without the protest or questioning tone he'd had before.

“Please,” she said. “I’m good.”

“I know you are, mei-mei,” he whispered, and hugged her tightly. “Please be safe. I’ll be back right after this test, I’ll run the whole way back. Okay?”

 “Okay.”

Simon headed out of the room, and he clicked the door shut behind him. River took off one shoe, smiled at the other, and curled back up on her brother’s pillow. She fell asleep.

She woke up with a start, in the dark, as the door lock beeps. She made it at a run, leaping from the bed across the room and slipping into the closet behind the door. She pulled the closet door shut behind her as the other person who lived in her brother’s room, the not-Simon boy, walked in and flipped on the lights.

Inside the closet, it was dark, and the unease of River’s mind grew. She backed up, into a shelf of t-shirts and a leather coat. She ran her fingers over the coat, the texture soothing the shouting volume of her thoughts, and without thinking about it, she reached into the most hidden pocket, the one closest to the heart of whoever was wearing it, and pulled out a folding knife. It’s sharp, she knew that instinctively, and she held it tightly, unfolded, in her hands. His name is Jayne, she remembered. Or rather, the knife remembered his name and she believed it.

At his desk, Jayne was playing music, and she hated it, hated the way that the notes trickled into the exposed cracks in her mind. She couldn’t figure out how to make him leave, though. She knew that he was like her, he liked the room of quiet strength. He wasn’t going to leave. The music rose to a pitch, and she couldn't take it anymore. She burst out of the closet, and Jayne spun around, jumping to his feet.

He hit his head on the underside of his bed and staggered and in that moment she crossed the room, unfolding the knife.

“What the-” Jayne groaned, and then he jerked backward again at the sight of River directly in front of him. 

“You’re scared,” she says, and her voice brooked no argument. But instead of agreeing, and backing down, he got bigger, filling up with fear and anger.

“I’m not scared of you, kid,” he said. “Get out of my room, before I show you why.” He reached for her shoulder and River’s thoughts vanished in a flood of fear.

 

_NOT GOOD /  DANGER  /  FLEE  / STOP / STOP HIM / HURT HIM / MAKE HIM STOP_

 

She swung the knife unsteadily, but with force, and it cut across his wrist and diagonally along the underside of the arm he was reaching out towards her. A spray of blood painted her face, and she screamed. He shouted in pain and shock, and his blood spilled out, across the floor, a stain that would soon reach her. With fear and his hate-filled eyes chasing her, she burst out of his room, Simon and not-Simon’s room. She slammed into a girl in the hallway, tall and strong and dark-skinned. She’s seen her before, she knows, and she sees the girl notice the blood. Without a word, she gets up and runs away.  

“They’ll be angry,” she muttered, as she ran. “Red-hot anger flowing like his blood, finding me, they’ll find me and they’ll hurt me. I have to run. I have to-”

 

_Zoe_

Zoe shifted her backpack on her shoulders and headed to her door. Before she unlocked it, though, she heard Jayne talking in a loud, angry voice. She paused outside her door, slightly guilty about her curiosity but curious nonetheless. Then a girl screamed, and Zoe started, turning back across the hall to his door. The door burst open, and a girl slammed into her, knocking them both to the ground. The girl had blood on her face, and a knife in her hand, but before Zoe could say anything she’s up and running, gone around the hallway.

“Jayne?” Zoe called, cautiously, balling her hands into fists. The door was open a crack and she pushed it open the rest of the way with her foot. With no idea of what she was about to find, she stepped in.

 “Zoe-” Jayne said weakly, clutching his forearm, blood dripping from between his fingers. He was leaning against his wall, and he stumbled forwards, tripping over his backpack and crashing back to the floor. Blood, his blood, pooled on the ground by his desk. Zoe froze for a moment, then rushed forwards. She pulled him to a sitting position, taking off her sweatshirt and wrapping it around his arm. His eyes were glazed with blood loss and shock, and he was muttering something incoherent. Zoe shifted, so she could hold him up and reach her phone. She dialed 9-1-1 and stammered something about a boy bleeding from a cut wrist and their location into the phone. The woman reassured her that help is on its way and that keeping a cloth wrapped around the wrist was the right thing to do.

 “Help!” she called, once she’d hung up the phone. Someone ought to go direct the paramedics. “Help!” she called again, louder. She heard a door slam open, and Mal’s roommate Wash stuck his head into Jayne’s room.

 “Oh my god,” he said, and he went pale. “Oh my, oh my god. Is he-”

“He’s alive,” she said, not bothering with sugarcoating. “Someone was in here, someone who I think might have done this to him. I need someone to go down to the lobby and tell the front desk to call the police, and then bring the paramedics up to us. Can you do that?”

“Y-yeah, I’ll go right now.” he said, and turned around shakily, sprinting away.

“Stay with me, Jayne. Stay with me.” Zoe said, over and over, and she’s still saying it when the paramedics arrive, when Wash says they’re allowed to go with him. She stopped saying it in the ambulance, when Jayne was lying on the gurney surrounded by IVs and paramedics. When she stops, she doesn’t know what to do instead, so she let Wash pull her into a hug, and he’s warm and solid and whatever it was that bothered her about him before was gone.

They stood together and watched with desperate eyes as Jayne struggled to stay alive. Then, with a start, Zoe realized what a mess was left behind, that Simon and Mal and Kaylee would be coming back from classes and they’d find the blood and wouldn’t know anything.

“Wash,” she said, fumbling for her phone. “I need to make some calls, can you-” 

“I’ll watch him,” he said. “Don’t worry. And the police were already called, even though I had to work really hard to convince them it wasn’t a suicide attempt. You are sure, aren’t you, that it was this girl?”

“Yeah. I saw her, and I saw her holding a knife.” Zoe said, her voice shuddering slightly. Wash patted her reassuringly on the shoulder.

“I figured. You’re not exactly the type to jump to conclusions,” he said. “Make your calls. We’ll get this sorted out.”

~ ~ ~ 

“Hello?” Mal asked. “Oh, hey, Zoe. Wait, what’s wrong?” He stopped walking. Kaylee, walking next to him, put a hand on his shoulder.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"Jayne was attacked by someone in the dorm. He's on his way to Arial Hospital with Zoe and Wash.” Trembling, she grabbed his hand as he listened to the rest of what Zoe had to say. 

“I’ll be there as soon as we can. You did good. Okay. See you then.” he hung up. “Kaylee, do you want to go see him at the hospital?” 

“Yes,” she said, and again. “Yes, of course. How could this happen? Who attacked him?”

“I guess we’ll find out.”

~ ~ ~

Simon came running back from the test and sprinted up the stairs. Out of breath, he paused for a moment in the hallway. It took him a full three seconds to notice the police officers and crime scene tape. 

“What happened?” he gasped, standing up despite the stabbing pain in his side. “Was someone hurt? What-”

“Sir, do you live here?” one of the officers asked.

“Uh, yes. I’m Simon, Simon Tam. My roommate is Jayne Cobb. Have you seen my sister? She was supposed to meet me here.”

“We have not, I’m sorry.” one officer said.

“Does your sister have a key to this dorm?” the other asked.

“Uh, no, we don’t have an extra key,” Simon said. “I have one and Jayne has the other. Where- where is Jayne? He should be back by now.” 

“Your roommate was attacked by an unknown assailant. He’s in critical condition,” The first police officer said, and how could he sound so calm about it? “He’s at a local hospital now, where he’s being treated. The girl who found him and a couple other people from this dorm are there too. Here’s the address. Do you have someone here? You probably shouldn’t be alone right now-”

“I’ll go meet them now,” Simon said, his breathing ragged. “Thanks.”

“Alright. We’ll let your college know so they can find you a suitable place to stay for now, since this room is off-limits as a crime scene. Do you have everything you need? Your wallet, ID, phone?”

“Yes. Thank you.” Simon said, backing away towards the staircase. He took the stairs back down two at a time, crumpling the address with shaking hands and shoving it into his pocket. He couldn’t go yet. He had to find River.


	4. Safe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long pause on the cliffhanger- I had this written but midterms ate it.

_Kaylee_

By the time they got off of the bus outside the hospital, Mal was fighting to keep his face neutral. Kaylee guessed that meant Jayne was in pretty bad shape. They headed in through the main doors, and Kaylee made a beeline for the information desk. 

“Excuse me?” she asked, her voice somewhere bordering on panic. The woman looked up from her computer, her face sympathetic. Kaylee relaxed a little. “Um, our friend Jayne just came in on an ambulance, can you tell us where to go?” The woman typed something offhandedly.

“Nope, I don’t see her. No one named Jane is checked in.”

“Uh-” Mal interjected. “He’s a guy, and it’s spelled J-a-y-n-e.” Another quick rattle of the keyboard.

“Oh, he’s out of Critical.” she said. “Room 225, second floor. The elevator’s right behind you.”

“Thanks!” Kaylee said, and they headed to the elevator doors. Kaylee watched as Mal impatiently hit the elevator button four times, cursing softly under his breath.

“He’s going to be okay, right?” Kaylee asked, her voice soft. The elevator doors opened with a ding, and Mal hurried her in. She didn’t ask again, afraid of what the answer would be. The ride to the second floor was unending, and Kaylee bounced lightly on the balls of her feet. Finally, they jerked to a stop and rushed out of the elevator, afraid now to show even the amount of decorum required in a hospital. Mal walked up to the door, took a deep breath, and pushed it open. Then he froze in the doorway, almost completely blocking Kaylee’s view.

“What, what is it?” she asked, breathlessly. She stood on tiptoe to peer over his shoulder. Then she giggled. Zoe and Wash were making out in the corner, so much so that they hadn’t even noticed Mal and Kaylee opening the door. Jayne lay on the hospital bed, pale but clearly breathing. Kaylee pushed past the stunned Mal and rushed to his side. Her motion caught Zoe’s eye, and she and Wash abruptly broke apart.

“Oh! Kaylee!” Zoe said, and then her voice grew grimmer. “They think he’ll be fine when he wakes up. They gave him a blood transfusion and he’s on fluids now, and some meds to help his circulation.” Mal walked up to Jayne’s other side, shaking away what he’d just seen in order to focus on Jayne. 

“His fingernails…” Kaylee said softly to Zoe. “Is that normal?” They were tinged blue.

“Doctors said so.” Wash chimed in from behind her.  Kaylee glanced up at the monitors, which were beeping softly. The lines and beeps were as steady as she’d expect, from Jayne. He was big and solid and stable, and the fact that his eyes stayed closed was throwing her off. She was pretty sure she wasn’t the only one, too. She glanced up at Mal just as he slammed an open palm against the hard hospital wall.

 _“_ _Ching-wah tsao duh liou mahng,”_ he hissed, and she blinked. She must have stopped listening, because it sounded like he’d just said- well, it didn’t do for Kaylee to ponder overmuch what the cap’n had said.

“What’s wrong, sir?” Zoe asked, and Wash stepped up behind her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Did they catch him?” Mal asked, settling into a chair with a thud. “Whoever did this to Jayne?”

“It was a little girl.” Zoe said, sinking into the only other chair. Wash muttered something about needing another chair and went out into the hall. Kaylee perched on the edge of Jayne’s bed, being careful not to sit on him or pull the blankets. 

“What?” Mal asked, his anger fading into confusion.

“I mean, not little. A teenager, I guess. She just seemed so young, and scared. I heard Jayne yell something about her getting out of his room, and she came sprinting out. I thought at first-” Zoe stopped, and ducked her head.

“You thought that it was his fault.” Mal finished. “That he’d done something to her.”

“Yes.” Zoe said. “But I realized she'd had a knife, and then I found him and I realized those were defensive wounds, that he’d been trying to get her out of his room and she’d been armed. I think-” Jayne groaned quietly, and Zoe yanked Kaylee off the bed as Mal grabbed for Jayne’s arms.

“Why-” Kaylee started to ask, and then Jayne woke up. All at once. He sat bolt upright with a unintelligible string of what were clearly curses. Kaylee flinched when she noticed he’d yanked the IV out of his arm, but Mal caught at his shoulders and struggled to hold him in the bed. After a few seconds, Jayne stopped fighting.

“Where am I?” he growled, looking around. Mal pushed on his shoulders again, and he reluctantly allowed Mal to lay him back down on the hospital bed.

“You’re at Arial Hospital,” Zoe said, and Jayne nodded slowly. Then the door slammed open as Wash came in at a run, followed closely by two nurses.

“We heard a commotion,” Wash said breathlessly, glancing at the room. Jayne was propped up on his pillow but looking intentionally nonchalant. Mal, although panting slightly, was leaned back in his chair. Zoe was still holding Kaylee back by one arm, but no one gave them more than a glance.

“Sorry,” Mal said. “Jayne accidentally pulled out his IV.” The nurses gave him a skeptical look, but one carefully cleaned and reinserted the IV while the other nurse checked the screen showing his vitals.

 “You’re looking pretty stable,” she said. “I think you’ll be all right.”

 "Good, thanks.” Mal said. The nurses cleared out of the room.

 “Sorry, couldn’t stop ‘em.” Wash said, gesturing after them. “Figured I’d try to beat them here and give you a second of warning.”

 “What’s going on?” Kaylee finally asked, and Zoe released her arm with a start.

 “We figured he’d wake up fast, seein’ how he was attacked and then passed out.” Zoe said. “We wanted to make sure there’d only be familiar faces here, so he wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

 “Or himself,” Wash whispered to her, and she bit back a smile at Jayne’s scowl in his direction.

 “Well, thanks.” Jayne said, grudgingly. “Gotta admit, havin’ a little girl come outta my closet and threaten me with a knife unless I shut off my music is damn unsettlin’ to say the least.”

 “So that’s what happened.” Wash said, with a grin. “There was a tiny music-hating serial killer. How’d she get in, anyways?”

 “Dunno. I had my key, so that couldn’t have been it. Doubt she climbed in the window.” Jayne’s eyes widened as he looked around the room. “Anyone heard from that fool, Simon? He seems like the kind of kid to show up if his roomie ended up in Arial.” Kaylee’s heart started to beat faster. Oh no. She should’ve thought to warn him. He’d come back to a dorm full of blood and police and-

 “No,” Mal said, “Why do you care?”

 “Oh.” Zoe said, and the way she said it made Kaylee’s stomach start aching. Zoe grabbed out her phone and walked out to the hallway.

 “Oh what?” Kaylee asked, her voice trembling. “And why are you all so used to this sort of thing?”

 “Long story,” Jayne growled over Mal’s answer. “And Simon’s the only other one with a room key. So if the moon-brained girl got it from him she might’ve taken exception to him as well.”

 “He’s not answering his phone,” Zoe said, sticking her head back into the room. There was a sudden silence in the hospital room, and Kaylee felt dizzy.

 "Where could that fool be?” Mal muttered.

 

~ ~ ~

_River_

Anger - Fear - Hurt - Hate - Rage - Worry - Love?

River stopped running.

“Simon?” she called, tentatively, into the dark evening air.

“River!” she heard his hoarse shout. The thunder of running feet, a stampede, she screams and turns to run and there are hands on her, so many, the whole dorm of girls turned against her and-

“River, River, calm down, calm down, please!” Simon’s voice cut through the fog, her lighthouse, always there, steady, safe. “It’s me.” She stopped thrashing and rolled her eyes.

“Of course.” she said, fighting to control her breathing. “I know who you are.”

“Good,” Simon says, and he sounds relieved. He pulls her into a tight hug, pressing her head to his chest, where she can feel the frantic beating of his heart. She scared him. The thought makes her uncomfortable, so it goes to stand with the other, the bigger hurt, the look in his eyes when she left him.

“River, you’ve been very brave, and I’m so sorry I left you.” Simon said, like he’d been practicing those words all day. He had, she knew he had. She had to stop him now.

“I did it!” she blurted out. Simon got very still.

“What did you do?” he asked, with only confusion and none of the fear that he should have had, would have.

“I hurt him. I was afraid,” she said, and Simon’s features morphed into anger.

“What did he do to you?” he asked, venom in his words. “How did he scare you?”

“Nothing. He did nothing. He just - he looks better in red,” River was stumbling over her words, trying to get them out.

“Don’t worry, nothing bad will happen if you tell me.” Simon said, and though his words were calm she could feel his hands shaking, longing to be clenched into fists.

“I hid when he came in,” she said, “In his heart, his meaning. I found what he keeps close to it,” and she pulled out Jayne’s knife, still covered in his blood. “I used it because the sounds were too loud, too loud, and I scared him and he turned his fear into brave so I hurt him.” Simon shook his head, rubbing at his eyes.

“Slow down, River, please. I can’t understand you. His music? Is that what the noises were? I know he plays loud music when I’m not there. Well, and when I am. That’s why you hurt him?”

“Had to make it stop.” she whined, and he shook his head, and she felt his cold disappointment rushing in on her, tempered only by the warmth of his love for her.

“River, no. You really hurt him, almost killed him.”

“You know?” she asked, giving up entirely on conjugation and the finer points, hoping to get her message through anyways. “His health?”

 “No, I haven’t been to the hospital. I can’t - You can’t go there. And I can’t leave you alone.”

 “Afraid.” she said, and Simon reached for his bag.

 “I brought some medicine for that,” he said, gently.

 “No! Afraid for the bulldog, afraid it doesn’t have enough of a grip to hang on.” she said, reeling backwards from his medicines that made her head blurry and out-of-focus.

 “Oh! Jayne will be fine." he said, after a moment of puzzling her remark over. "Please, let me help you.” 

 “I believe I can offer you some assistance.” a deep voice said from the shadows behind him.


End file.
